Recent advancement of the computer network enables a plurality of printers to be readily connected to one information processing apparatus like a personal computer. In the structure where one information processing apparatus connects with multiple printers, print data generated by the information processing apparatus may be output to the respective printers in a distributive manner. When there is a large mass of print data, it takes an undesirably long time to complete printing with only one printer Output of the print data to multiple printers in a distributive manner desirably shortens the total time required for printing.
The prior art technique has a variety of operatability-related problems discussed below.
Problems Regarding Operatability of Printing
The prior art technique requires the operator to adequately divide a document to be printed and individually output a print command to the multiple printers. This makes the series of operations significantly complicated and leads to poor operatability and insufficiently shortened printing time.
It is thus highly demanded to attain the good operatability and the high-speed distributed printing.
Problems Regarding Acquisition of Favorable Resulting Prints
In the prior art technique, it is required to set various pieces of information in an information processing apparatus for distributed printing. The various pieces of information to be set include information on the printer names for identifying printers specified as destinations of distribution and paper-related information like the paper size and the paper type. A data input window is open on a display, and the operator inputs data on the window through operations of a keyboard and a mouse, so as to set the required pieces of information.
The information processing apparatus notifies each printer specified by the printer name of information regarding the printing performance of the printer, such as the paper-related information, prior to actual distributive output of the print data to the respective printers. Each printer prepares for printing to satisfy the paper-related information, based on such notification. The information processing apparatus then outputs the print data to each printer that has been ready for printing.
In this prior art arrangement, the setting with regard to the paper-related information may be out of the range of the printing performance possessed by a certain printer specified as the destination of distribution. For example, A3 may be set to the paper size, while the certain printer specified as the destination of distribution is capable of printing up to the size A4. The printing requirement with the A3 paper to the printer having the printing performance of up to the size A4 does not ensure the favorable resulting print from the printer.
It is accordingly demanded to adequately set various pieces of information, such as the paper-related information, and thereby ensure preferable resulting prints.
Problems Regarding Coincidence of Printing Area
In the prior art technique, when the multiple printers specified as destinations of distribution are of different types, printing on sheets of an identical size with different printers does not ensure an identical printing area on the sheets. This causes some irregularity in resulting prints. Each printer has an unprintable area on the paper area, and the size of the unprintable area depends upon the type of the printer. This leads to a variation in printable area among different types of printers. Here the unprintable area represents any area that does not allow printing, due to the relation of the sheet feed mechanism to paper, for example, a lower end or a right end of the paper.
It is accordingly demanded to enable resulting prints having a perfectly identical size and position of the printing area to be obtained from the multiple printers specified as the destinations of distribution.